ABSTRACT
The Union of Burma is a nation of over twenty-eight million people, the fourth largest in Southeast Asia. Burma is one of the region’s poorest nations, as measured by per capita income; but low popula tion density and high land fertility have allowed Burma to escape the stark poverty that characterizes India. The main crop, both for internal consumption and export, is rice. The majority people, called Burmans, make up about 75 percent of the population and live in the rice-growing central lowlands; they are Buddhist. Ring ing the Burman areas are half-a-dozen significant minority ethnic and tribal peoples, some of whom practice Islam or Christianity. All have been, at one time or another, in armed conflict with the Burman majority.
